A sudden thought brought a young artist to Liverpool from Hong Kong to honour thousands of men who disappeared from the city one year.
Yarli Allison, 33, was researching in a British colonial prison in Hong Kong when they realised the strength of links between China and Britain, particularly Liverpool where thousands of Chinese seamen and their families lived.
But Yarli was shocked to learn that in 1946, thousands of Chinese men, many of whom served in the Allied war effort, were deported from Liverpool at the orders of the British government.
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Thinking about the children Chinese seamen had with British wives, and the racism faced by East and Southeast Asian people in Britain then and now, Yarli thought about their own migrant background.
Yarli's parents moved from Hong Kong to Canada where they raised Yarli, who has since lived in Paris and London.
They wondered how their ancestor met their British or Irish great-great-great-grandma, and how the families of those Chinese seamen must have felt facing racism and deportation with both China and Britain torn by war.
What caught Yarli's attention most was the thought of how the sailors and their families lived, beyond just the colossal tragedies of the 1940s.
Yarli said: "You have so many questions, like what language do they speak? Did they cook for their children? How much time can they spend in Liverpool with their child when they're not at sea?
"How did the society accept them?"
Using virtual reality, Yarli recreated scenes of daily life, to capture the humanity of Chinese seamen and "remember them in a way that is not only tragic".
Speaking of the first time they made such scenes from their own life when missing home, Yarli said: "I had this virtual reality tool, so I started to draw familiar places that I remember.
"I started drawing my childhood bed, then a staircase, and then I can see my mother sitting in the living room.
"The whole picture starts to form and then your emotions start to come back. It's a mental aspect - that home was my identity."
In an exhibition at FACT Liverpool closing February 20, Yarli's mixed media creation combines interviews with the dual-heritage descendants of seamen, digital mapping of census data, and virtual reality.
Yarli said: "When this work came out, the staff here were saying that a lot of people approached them and started sharing stories about the Chinese sea-faring community, even saying 'Oh, this street was my grandmother's neighbourhood'.
"It's interesting how that power connects to people in different ways, and they want to share that. They will approach people to start talking about it."
They added: "Anyone who has moved home could probably relate to that a little bit, the feeling of displacement, or the loss of a loved one, or grief."
Yarli is left feeling a "unique attachment" with Liverpool and its history.
